Alicia Pino | Put Me in the Zoo

Salif Sow | If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks

"This book inspired me because it was about civil rights activist leader who never gave up to find justice and do what was right to find peace and love in her own commhnity."

Christian Medina | The Five People You Meet in Heaven

"This book teaches the reader the valuable lesson of forgiveness and it is a lesson I will carry for the rest of my life."

Julianna Sabec | The Day the Crayons Quit

"The peach crayon was my favorite crayon because he said he was naked because the boy, Duncan, had ripped off his paper wrapper."

WHYY I Like this Book is WHYY's commitment to promoting literacy in the Philadelphia region by connecting children to each other through literacy in an effort to promote reading at home and in the classroom.

WHYY I Like this Book is a contest for SCHOOLS, KIDS and FAMILIES.

Hey Teachers and Principals! Did you know that your school could win the WHYY I Like this Book contest? The schools with the highest participation will be named a WHYY I Like this Book Winner. Winning schools will have one student selected to represent their school on WHYY-TV in a 60-second television spot.

If you would like WHYY to come to your school for a presentation about the WHYY I Like this Book program, please contact Colleen Slotman at (215) 928-2459 or cslotman@whyy.org.

Hey Families! Did you know that your family could win the WHYY I Like this Book contest? If you are a family with children who are not quite school-aged, but love reading, WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Fill out the family application and tell us about your favorite book to read as a family for the chance to have your family featured on WHYY-TV in a 60-second spot.

Fill out an application today and tell us why you like your favorite book for the chance to be featured in a television spot that will air on WHYY-TV. Please select the Student Application if you are a student, or the parent of a student in Grades K-12. If you are a family with children ages 0-5, please select the Family Application.

Best of luck! Our panel of judges will be looking for the most outstanding applications among contestants in various grade levels. What qualifies as an “outstanding application?” Below you’ll find samples from past finalists. Our judges select these types of original, clear and detailed responses to questions on the application.

We’ll be in touch. Semi-Finalists will be contacted by January 15, 2017. For more information on the Semi-Finalist round, please review the contest rules and regulations.

Our panel of selected judges will be looking for the most outstanding applications among contestants in various grade levels. To give you an idea of an outstanding application, below you
will find answers to questions from the applications received from past finalists:

ELEMENTARY APPLICATION

Please describe what you like about this book.

This book is so funny! All of the crayons in Duncan's crayon box write him letters. Each of them is complaining about something. The gray crayon is feeling very tired
because Duncan uses him to color big animals. Blue crayon is short and stubby because Duncan colors with him so much. It's the boy's favorite color. Pink crayon is mad
because Duncan never uses her. She thinks it's because she's a girl's color. Purple crayon is mad because she wants him to color inside the lines. Yellow and Orange
crayons are fighting over which one of them is the color of the sun. This book is special because at the end Duncan makes all of the crayons happy because he
uses each one to make a beautiful picture. He listens to what each of them said in their letters. I think his picture is beautiful!

MIDDLE SCHOOL APPLICATION

Who is your favorite character and why do they stand out to you?

My favorite character was Jason because he was the natural leader who was from somewhere else. It was interesting to see his memory come back (It was stolen from him
to start off the book) and how his fellow quest members ended up following his lead even though they didn't know him. I can relate to him because I am a leader and people
look up to me, but I don't always know the answers, similar to Jason.

HIGH SCHOOL APPLICATION

How does this book relate to you and your life?

I was never very religious. I felt that I was too young to really know what to believe in, but the way the author eloquently tip toes past every religion without any
insult or misdemeanor really taught me a valuable lesson: you don't have to put faith in religion or a god. Having faith in your life and in yourself is the only religion
you'll need. You will make many mistakes, countless wrong turns, hurt people you don't even know, but it is all part of life. The best thing you can do is pick yourself
up and move on; you can always make tomorrow better.

Entrants must be in kindergarten through grade twelve in order to apply.

A parent, teacher or guardian must give consent before students complete an online entry.

Responses may not exceed 1,000 characters (per question).

Each entrant must submit original responses.

Entry deadline is December 16, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. Entries submitted after this time will not be accepted.

Round 1

All entries will be assesed by a team of experts who will be looking for the following:

Is the application thoughtful and complete?

Is there a thorough description of how and why this book relates to the student?

Does the student’s personality come across in his or her application?

Round 2

Students selected as Semi-Finalists will be contacted by a WHYY staff member and scheduled to come in to meet with a WHYY producer for a screen-test.

All Semi-Finalists will be judged based on the following:

Ability to respond to questions.

Energy and personality are easily displayed on camera.

No more than 25 entrants will be selected as Semi-Finalists.

Semi-Finalists will be contacted no later than May 18, 2016.

Round 3

Students selected as Finalists will be contacted by a WHYY staff member and scheduled to come in for production of a television interstitial (a commercial-length spot that airs in between scheduled programming).

No more than 10 entrants will be selected as Finalists.

Finalists will be contacted no later than two week after screen test date.

Both Semi-Finalists and Finalists will be invited to a WHYY I Like this Book Reception that will take place in January 2017.